String Theory
by Lashworthe
Summary: Alternate Universe. It's 136 years since Tony Stark died, taking with him all the secrets of his genius. Loki Ruser is the new up and coming genius who buys up the old Malibu home of Tony Stark to discover its secrets. He gets more than he bargains for when he discovers the Iron Man design plans, and a sentient hologram of Tony Stark himself. Ironfrost. Eventual mature content.
1. The Beginning

The house was exactly as Loki remembered. The Stark Mansion had been converted into a museum to showcase the genius of the playboy, philanthropist, and billionaire. His inventions were on display, protected behind glass cases. Loki could remember the first time he had walked through the museum as a child…and had pointed out a flaw in one of the theorems displayed in Tony's lab. The staff had quietly asked the 8 year old and his family to leave.

And now, 20 years and a failing economy later, the museum and estate of Tony Stark was up for auction. The bidding had been intense, but Loki did not back down, and, at the cost of a small percentage of his fortune, now the museum and all of its contents were his.

For a man who had died nearly 100 years earlier, Tony Stark's work was still breathtaking. Loki could feel the intellect in the air, from the easy changeability of the space (to accommodate for various experiments requiring different layouts), to the crisp, stark lines of the architectural design. The home was everything Loki had dreamed of, and he had never felt so at home.

He ignored the kitchen, living room, the expanse of self-aggrandizing art work of Iron Man along the walls and stepped lightly to the lab. That was all he cared about. He used the universal code provided by the realtor, and the door opened under its own power.

The lab had not been used in years, and it smelled of an acrid combination of burnt metal and dust. He waved his hand in front of his face, coughing softly as he went over to the gem of the room, the work console. The symbols on the LED keyboard were not any that Loki knew; it was an entirely separate language that this genius had once used to do his work. Loki smiled, sitting down and going over the various symbols, pressing a few, pleased when the system responded.

"Good. Everything is still in operating condition." he smiled, that would make this easier.

He popped his knuckles and set to work digging through any and all of the files he could find. He tilted his head as the file 'Jarvis Mainframe' flashed by the screen. He tapped on the hologram for the file, narrowing his eyes as the red words 'Access Denied' flashed across the screen. Even the universal code that the realtor had assured him would grant him access to everything failed to crack open the file. He tried to go around through a back access point but was blocked by a firewall like nothing Loki had ever seen before.

He frowned, growing frustrated as the 'Access Denied' continued to flash up. Whoever had put up these firewalls did not intend anyone to ever get past them, and even a hundred years later, they were holding strong, but Loki had not been billed the genius of his day, the star of MIT for nothing.

He slid between the codes, brushing past all of the intricate details. It was like picking apart a finely crafted engine; he could see how all of the pieces locked together. It was beautiful. For the first time in his life, Loki felt that he was looking at a masterpiece, a problem that he could not instantly solve, and it was intoxicating.

He expanded the code out to surround him, literally wrapping himself in the digital embodiment of this firewall. He walked through the numbers, and letters letting them sort around him like the stars of a new galaxy. He reached out, plucking a few strands of data here and there, rearranging the constellations of the program and creating his own sky.

The bits of data flashed red and blue as they were shifted across the realms of space, and then, a stray stream caught his eye. It dashed across the coding like an errant shooting star and Loki chased it across the cosmos.

The code sparked, flickering lights against his fingers as he pulled it out of place, and smiled, "Genius." he looked over the interwoven commands. The detail was extraordinary, code within cipher, bound by another puzzle, and protected by a separate set of data. Each set had its own language. It was like nothing Loki had seen before.

He sat back down and began the slow process of splitting the seams of the shooting star. He could almost feel the computer resisting him, red warnings flashed across the screen as the code expanded to take over the room swirling faster and faster with each level of protection pried and peeled off. He dug through the layers, throwing the discarded and broken code to the floor as he went.

He grinned as the last level stood before him, the core nugget of the firewall. Long graceful fingers dug through that, prying apart meanings…and then, everything went green and the screen flashed, "Access granted."

Loki dove into the revealed files, there was more otherworldly coding and as he read through it, he realized what he had gotten into: an AI system that rivaled on being sentient.

"JARVIS, huh? A sentient AI butler… Stark you crazy bastard." Loki shook his head, laughing softly as he flipped through the thousands of files, skimming quickly over each piece of information.

He almost missed it, the very small, very hidden file labeled 'Start Up'. He backtracked and tapped on the file to open it. For a moment, nothing happened. The screen flickered and then the entire house went dark.

Loki cursed and fumbled for his phone for some small bit of light, but even his phone was dark. He got to his feet, hand to the wall, trying to feel his way to the door when a track of pale blue light flickered to life on the floor and began branching like a spider web around the house. Every square inch of the house was slowly coated with the thin blue thread, and Loki briefly wondered if somehow he had triggered some sort of self-destruct sequence.

Loki could feel his heart racing in his chest, breathing uneasy as the lights slowly flickered back to life. He took a deep breath and sank back into the chair. He frowned as a few of the stationary robots in the lab began twitching, gears clicking and protesting the movement after so many years stationary. Upstairs he could hear a TV blaring, something banging in the kitchen, and the doors open and closing.

"What is happening?" Loki asked the empty space around him, falling out of his chair when there was a response.

A strange British voice spoke against the noise of the house, "Stark Malibu home online. Welcome home sir."

* * *

A huge thanks to tumblr and one of my best friends in the universe for throwing this prompt my way!


	2. Preferences

Loki was stunned for several long moments before clearing his throat, "And you are?"

"Jarvis, sir. State your name and title."

"Loki Ruser. Entrepreneur." Loki looked over the files, "Jarvis? An acronym no doubt…clever, naming an AI something like Jarvis."

"Name not found in database. Please re-state identification or contact Mr. Stark to be added to database."

"Contact Mr. Stark…?" Loki's thin lips drew into a frown. He tapped a few keys, pulling up the last system update. It had not been touched since before Mr. Stark's death. "Mr. Stark is deceased. I have primary access codes and authorization now."

The files rapidly scrolled across the screen, Jarvis pulling up a simple file labeled 'Last Will yaddayadda.' "Impossible sir. Mr. Stark left this system and all access codes to Pepper Potts."

"Who passed away after Stark."

The files scrolled by faster, "The system than was to be donated to the state of California and serve as the 'Science Museum of Iron Man.'"

"And it did, however, it was auctioned it off this month for budget deficit reasons." Loki countered, shaking his head; he was trying to argue with a machine.

He pulled back up the code and went to work, trying to re-code Jarvis with the needed information, but the screen locked as Jarvis accessed the Internet rapidly opening and closing tabs. Loki could only catch the glimpses of the pages as they rushed by in a flurry of colors.

'Tony Stark dead at 46."

"Iron Man technology lost after tragic death of Tony Stark."

"Stark stocks plummet after death of CEO."

"Pepper Potts, lifelong assistant to Tony Stark, dead at 63."

"Stark industry bankrupt!"

"Who inherits the lost Stark technology now?"

"Lost Stark Tech? Experts baffled."

"The Life of America's Last Genius."

"Will Iron Man Ever Be Resurrected?"

"Stark Tower in Manhatten Purchased by Hammer Industries."

"Experts Claim Stark Malibu Home Contains Key to Lost Stark Tech."

The articles began scrolling by too quickly for Loki to follow, it all turned into a stream of video, audio and images that blurred across the room until all of the screens went suddenly black.

"Anthony Stark is dead?" the British voice asked.

"Yes. Yes, I am afraid so. You were unaware?" Loki fought the surge of sympathy that hit him. This was a program, not a person.

"I…" the hesitation in the automated voice had to be imagined, "I was unaware. Mr. Stark shut down my file…this is the last recording I possess in my memory banks…." the file was pulled up, and the audio recording began to play.

A warm, rough voice filled the room. "Hey Jarvis buddy…" there was a long coughing fit, "I'm going to turn you off for just a bit, alright? Just have to get some things taken care of. It..it…won't be long." There was a very soft sniffle, and the voice wavered, then cracked, "Just…remember to be good buddy, okay? An…And to take care of Dum-E." There was another weak cough, "…goodnight buddy…Daddy will always love you, kay?" the audio file cut off.

"I…see…I'm sorry." Loki shook his head. This was ridiculous; he was apologizing to an AI for the loss of its creator.

"Thank you for your condolences, sir."

Loki stood, and took a deep breath, "So Jarvis…what functions do you serve?"

"Mr. Stark programmed me to optimize household functions. I monitor equipment levels, store files, assist with research. I run everything that Mr. Stark uses."

"Yes…I do not think Mr. Stark will be needing much help with running anything any longer," Loki cleared his throat, pulling up the AI's programming again.

Again, he was struck by the simple elegance of the coding. It was a masterpiece in everyway. Even for being over 100 years old, it held strong, and was better done and more complicated than many of the modern day programs Loki had worked with. This was done by a mind that was not constricted by time or the technologies of his day, "This is truly genius." Loki murmured.

"Mr. Stark is…was….was is was is is was…" Jarvis' voice caught, froze and flickered between past and present, unable to decide, unable to proceed forward.

"Jarvis?" Loki got to his feet warily, "Jarvis, Mr. Stark has passed on. He is no longer here."

"Negative sir. Mr. Stark is always here."

"Jarvis. You read the articles yourself. Surely there is a protocol of operation after Mr. Stark's death." Loki scowled, hurrying through the 'Last Will yaddayadda' file. All of the information in it only pertained to what would happen to the home. It was utterly devoid of coding of any sort.

"Jarvis…activate whatever action you have listed as your primary function in the event of Mr. Stark's death."

"Shutting down," was the only warning Loki had before the house plunged into darkness.

Loki stared down, squinting against the blackness. He ran a hand through his hair and got to his feet, hesitantly feeling his way through the lab, grunting when his shin crashed into a table leg. He muttered softly and fished a small lighter from his pocket. (And his brother had told him that his smoking habit would never help him!)

There had to be a way to manually override the system and restart everything. He needed power restored long enough to see what adjusting he could do to Jarvis' coding; clearly Tony Stark had not intended the AI to be accessed after his death. The program was faulty in that regard, and if Loki wanted the system to function again he needed to find someway to override that.

The small light from the flame didn't help drastically but it let him at least avoid destroying his shin again. How in the world could an AI shut off a self-sustained energy power? This was…genius. Loki shook his head, admiring the dead like this was not healthy.

He moved the light across the basement lab. There had to be a manual restart, surely someone smart enough to build all of this would have known that a manual override would still be necessary. "Where is the bloody thing?" he muttered.

He nearly jumped when there was a sot whirring, chirping noise and a shadow moved across the wall. Instantly, his mind was in overdrive, was it possible that the home had been boogey trapped? Was Jarvis' shut down the beginning of some aggressive action? He would not put that past Tony Stark.

He spun around, seeing another flash of shadow darting towards him. Heart pounded in his chest as the whirring, chirping grew louder. He backed up, freezing when he felt the cold barrel of something press against his back. He was going to be killed by a house. That was how it was going to end.

His breath frozen in his chest, he slowly turned around, spotting the strange robot made of only the barest pieces of metal. It was so unlike all of the other elegant, sleek designs of the home, Loki briefly wondered if he as hallucinating. A fire extinguisher was clutched in its simple claw-like hands, and it took Loki about two seconds to realize what was about to happen. But that was two seconds too long. The robot fired and the extinguisher covered him in foam.

Loki coughed and sputtered; he slid in the foam and slammed into the ground, groaning and trying to get back to his feet but the foam covered him and he had no traction. He sighed and hit his head on the floor, closing his eyes before he felt warm laughter bubbling up from his stomach.

For the first time in years, Loki Ruser was overcome by his laughter. Tears rolled down his cheeks and his sides ached. It was several long minutes before he could catch his breath, coughing softly as he managed to sit up, still covered in the thick foam. He couldn't help but feel that somehow Tony Stark had just played a prank on him.

He had to crawl, still not able to get to his feet, and fumbled blindly forward. The sudden return of the lights made him wince and try to cover his eyes. He glanced towards the screens which flickered back to life, returning to the plain start screen, still saying plainly, 'Welcome home Mr. Stark.'

Grabbing hold of a table for support, he got back to his feet, deciding that round two with Jarvis would have to wait until after he was uncovered from the foam. He slid his way carefully up the stairs and back to the main living area where he had to resort back to moving on all fours across the slick wood flooring. He settled for just crawling into the shower, fully clothed, and kicking the water on.

The foam was slowly rinsed away, and he was finally able to get back to his feet. Getting out of his sopping wet clothes proved to be a challenge as he just pried the clingy fabric from his lean frame and tossed it to the shower floor. He would deal with this later.

He washed carefully, wondering just how old that fire extinguisher had to be and what effects expired fluoro tensides had on the human body. He didn't appear to be having any sort of negative reaction: no rashes, pain or scarring. He washed again just in case before wrapping in one of the red towels (monogrammed with a golden 'S' of course) and going to find a bedroom.

This had been more than enough for one day. He fell into the first bed he found, and sleep quickly claimed him.

The next morning, he woke to the smell of coffee and breakfast. He frowned, who in the world had broken into the house to cook breakfast? He draped himself in the bedroom sheets, and carried a lamp with him to the kitchen.

Everything was moving of its own accord, the coffee maker almost done brewing its first pot. Eggs were sitting warm in a skillet over the stove. Loki frowned, "Hello?" he called, lamp still raised and ready to strike.

"Good morning sir." Jarvis chimed, "I have prepared coffee, eggs, and…" he paused.

Loki blinked, "And?"

The toaster popped, and Loki leapt, slamming the lamp down over the toaster. The lampshade popped off, flew into the air and crashed down onto Loki's head. He stared in shock.

"And toast sir. Is there anything else?"

Loki wasn't sure how to glare at Jarvis so he settled for lifting the lampshade from his head and narrowing his eyes at the ceiling, "That will be all Jarvis."

"I will alert Mr. Stark that his guest is awake."

Loki sighed, "I am not a guest. I own this house." he protested as he tossed the lampshade aside, and went to unplug all of the offending objects. The toast had been crushed, mashed into the heating units by the lamp. He sighed, dumping the coffee. He hated the black brew, preferring green tea instead…though the eggs were a nice touch and well done.

Once the kitchen was cleaned up and the lamp and toaster sent out to the trash to rest in peace, Loki headed back into the lab, diving back into Jarvis' code. This time he decided against trying to rewrite Jarvis' mainframe, instead, he created a new user file that shared primary ownership.

With some difficulty he was able to make both himself and, since he found himself unable to delete it, Tony Stark the primary account holders. He then set about setting up his own preference: a tea kettle set to brew in the morning, low lighting, classical music (not this rock rubbish) and the primary color of the screens, codes and other items to green.

He smiled at his work before speaking softly, "Jarvis, activate Loki Ruser user preferences."

"User preference temporarily changed."

The screens flickered, light Beethoven began to play, the coding across the screens flashed to green, and Loki grinned, "Please set Loki Ruser preferences to default."

"I'm sorry sir. Tony Stark's preferences are permanently my default settings."

Loki sighed, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands, "Tony Stark is dead."

"His preferences are still set to permanent default sir."

Loki looked up, "…he…has his settings…" he chuckled, looking back to the code. The very core of the coding had Tony Stark's user account as the permanent default; the only way to remove that was to completely rewrite the programming from the ground up.

Tony Stark had not written this program to ever be used after his death. It had been intended to stay sealed up, and now that Loki had started it up… he was going to have to live with a house that was programmed to the exact preferences of a man who had been dead for over 100 years.

Loki shook his head and sighed. He had a lot of work ahead of him, but for the first time in years, Loki felt alive, was having fun. This was a puzzle that he could lose himself in, a challenge that would take him time to unravel.

"You bloody genius…" Loki was unable to keep a faint smirk from darting across his thin lips, "You bloody asshole genius…"

"Yes sir, Anthony Stark is a genius." Jarvis responded, "Who does not play well with others according to his file."

He settled into his seat, and set to work, "…Well then Tony Stark… let's see how well you and I play together…"

Loki lost himself to his work, disappearing into the world of codes. He managed to make a few minor adjustments, adjusting the volume of the music that would play automatically, but was unable to crack into the code that made Jarvis cater to Tony's preference. He ran a hand through his hair before leaning back and stretching, jumping when his hand crashed into something very hot.

He yelped and jumped to his feet, turning in time to see that same fire-extingusiher wielding robot. Only this time, the little robot was holding a tray of food, a bowl of hot soup knocked over, flooding everything on the tray. Loki frowned, sniffing the air. The rich scent of creamy tomato soup wafted around him, the scent of buttered toast and melted cheese hit him next. He looked down at the little robot, "…lunch I presume."

The robot chirped softly and lifted the tray higher, Loki stepped back just avoiding the bowl of soup as it crashed off of the tray.

"Midnight snack actually, sir." Jarvis responded, "It has been greater than 12 hours without your consumption of food."

"…And who is this?" Loki asked, leaning forward to hesitantly take the soup-soaked sandwich from the tray. He looked it over, nothing appeared out of date, or expired. He took a bite, smiled: it was, aside from being soggy, a nice simple grilled cheese.

"Sir, this is Dum-E. Mr. Stark's first robot."

Loki vaguely recalled that recorded voice asking Jarvis to take care of Dum-E, "…what does Dum-E do? What are his functions?"

Jarvis seemed to hesitate, "Dum-E….serves as an extra pair of hands."

Loki frowned, "…Dum-E?"

The robot whirred softly, wheeling closer.

Loki smiled lightly, "…Can you clean up this mess?" he motioned to the soup splattered all around them.

Dum-E chirped with excitement, dropping the tray, and splattering more soup across the floor. It rolled off, tracking orange soup tread marks across the lab before returning with a lab and slapping the rag against the floor. Loki flinched as soup flew into his face, "Ah…t…that's perfect Dum-E…thank you. That's all. Looks great. Tip-top really."

Dum-E chirrped again, spinning in a slow circle, arms flashing up and down until Loki finally had to pull the rag from Dum-E's clawed hand, "Really…Um… that is all…Please." Loki leaned down to wipe the robot's wheels clean.

Dum-E finally wheeled away, and Loki sighed as he got on his hands and knees and began cleaning up the soup. It all kept pooling over by the wall furthest from the workstation. He grumbled under his breath as he cleaned, pausing when he watched as the liquid seemed to keep sliding between the walls. He narrowed his eyes and got to his feet, feeling across the wall. It felt sturdy…but… his fingers hit a small area that was not flush with the rest of the wall.

"Jarvis. Open this doorway."

"I'm sorry sir, only Tony Stark has access to that area."

Loki narrowed his eyes, looking around the lab. He found a small welding torch and, after a few false starts found what he needed. He lit it up and began working along that line in the wall. He could hear the wall protesting, the scream of metal as it was cut, and then a dull thud as something fell.

Cutting off the power to the torch, he grabbed at the edge he had just cut, grateful for thick gloves protecting his hands, and pushed with all his might. He paused before smiling, "Dum-E. Help me open this."

The little robot grabbed on to the door and tugged. With Dum-E's help the hidden door gave way. Loki coughed, waving his hand in front of his face against the scent of burnt metal and stale air.

He peered into the room, taking a slow step forward. There was a soft click and the lights slowly flickered on one by one. The room was huge, a sort of underground garage, Loki would guess. He moved cautiously, hearing Dum-E whirring along behind him.

There were glass cases, still dark, and various screens running stats that Loki couldn't quite make out. Various parts and pieces of metal were across seven work tables; it looked like work had stopped suddenly, in the middle of some sort of project. He slid through the room, dust stirring up at each step as he made his way over to the first worktable, trying to find some hint of what he had found. He brushed aside a few scraps and froze.

Looking down, he found himself suddenly staring into the battered and torn face of the lost Iron Man suit.

***###

Thanks so much for the great responses! It will not be until December that I update again. Finals are coming up and will be eating my soul. Enjoy! Please comment and let me know what you thought!


	3. Intruder

A gash ran from one side of the helmet to the other, nearly cutting it in half. He ran his hands over the cut: it was jagged, not something made with the precision that Tony Stark would have used, likely damage sustained in battle. Judging by the various pieces of metal scattered across these workbenches, Stark had been in the middle of repairing it when he had fallen ill and passed away. The helmet weighed less than he thought it would, and he moved it from hand to hand with ease as he looked over the way the metal joints married together. It was simple, elegant, and well constructed to hide any possible weaknesses in the seams of the metal.

"Jarvis, all lights on and all glass containers opened." he commanded.

"Sir, only Mr. Stark has access to this area. I cannot comply." Jarvis' response was immediate.

Loki groaned, "Are you bloody kidding me?" he put the helmet down, rubbing his temples. This system was not going to work if he could do not even get Jarvis to turn on or off the lights. He was losing to a house.

For the moment he ignored the darkened glass cases; he could guess what they contained. Reaching the primary computer console in the room, he could see that the stats were monitoring the environment, particularly in the glass chambers that were labeled 1 through 5. All atmospheric conditions were kept within a very limited range to keep the metal from any sort of deterioration with time.

Licking his lips, he tried to dive in to this console, not surprised when firewalls appeared to block his way. He sighed, "I have tried playing nice with you Jarvis, but you are continuously blocking my way."

"I apologize if I have upset you sir, but Mr. Stark does not allow access to this area."

"Yes, well, that is about to change."

"I am sorry sir, but my firewalls will prevent that."

Loki pulled his phone from his pocket, sliding a small data chip from it, "Not when the wolf comes, they won't." He carefully place the chip into the main unit of the computer, "Alright, Fenrir….time to devour."

The program was quick, cruel and efficient. The first person Loki had used it on had called it a virus, but it wasn't anywhere that simple. Fenrir was Loki's prized creation, the first true piece of software he had birthed. It was a program designed to devour and break through anything that stood in its way, all nonessential codes would be crushed in its jaws, and nothing could stop it. Fenrir devastated, not with the elegance Loki generally applied, but with the brute force of pure destruction. Nothing could contain or stop the wolf once it was set free.

Loki felt only a faint pang of guilt as the screen flickered and the firewall tried to fight back. He heard Jarvis stuttering overhead before the power flickered out and then slowly began to reboot again. He smiled when the screens started back up and responded to his touch.

"There. Now that was not so terrible, was it Jarvis?" Loki asked.

"Sir, this information is to remain accessed only by Tony Stark. Please cease and desist."

Loki sighed, "Jarvis, mute and play Loki Ruser user preference music station in five minutes."

Jarvis fell silent, and Loki grinned as he started to work over the files in this computer. "The Mach I…. icing issues addressed…" he frowned, "Icing issues?"

He waved his hand and spread out the holographic representations of the files, and opened several of them. They all contained similar notes, discussing what had, and had not worked with each of the suits. He tossed the files he did not want to the side and smiled when he finally found what he was looking for: blueprints.

He moved to access the file when the boom of guitars blasted over the speaker system. The walls shook at the noise level, and Loki covered his ears against the blare of rock.

"Jarvis! What is this?" he yelled, but the AI did not respond as the music continued.

_"Back in black! I've been gone too long, I'm glad to be back!"_ the singer screeched to Loki's ears and he groaned.

"Jarvis, stop the music!" he tried again, but the AI continued ignoring him as the song raged on.

"_Don't try to push your luck, just get out of my way!"_

"Jarvis, mute the music!" Loki, hands still over his ears struggled to get back to the console and try to find some way to manually override the music. He frantically pushed every setting option he could find, but the music would not stop.

"_Yes I'm back in black!"_

Loki smashed pressed a few more setting options and sighed with relief when the house went dark again. His ears were ringing with the ridiculous song. Loki vaguely recalled it, it was from some band that Tony Stark had been fond of… AC/DC. That was it.

Lights slowly flickered back on, and Loki was relieved that the rock music did not return with it. "Jarvis?"

"Yes sir?"

"What was that?"

"A manual shut down accessed by the secondary lab console. Please do not access manual reboot again, sir."

"I asked you to play music from Loki Ruser preference. That was not what you played." Loki took a deep breath, and shook his head to try to stop the ringing in his ears.

"Negative sir. Loki Ruser's music preference is listed as rock music from the 1970s to the 2000s, specifically AC/DC. Volume choice is set to maximum."

Loki glared at the ceiling, "Incorrect Jarvis. Reset Loki Ruser settings to classical instrumental pieces at a low volume."

"Yes sir. Shall I play music from Loki Ruser user preference?"

Loki hesitated, put his hands over his ears just in case, "Yes."

Relief hit him like a shockwave when Beethoven began playing. "Thank you Jarvis."

He moved back to looking over the information, pausing as the file names flashed by. "These…are not the same files I was just accessing…"Best Omelet Recipes? Playboy Cover Models? Reasons Tony Stark Rocks?" he could feel his brow twitching, the files had been switched.

He pulled his Fenrir program chip from the computer and carefully put it away as he took a few slow rehearsed breaths to calm himself back down. When that didn't work he decided it would be best to take a break, get some sleep and return to work on this again. He left the suit lab, putting a few scraps of metal in the hidden door jam to keep it from closing. Jarvis was acting strangely enough that he didn't trust the AI to not try to lock down the lab. He shook his head; he was giving an AI a personality again.

He sighed and made his way back upstairs to fall, fully clothed, into his bed. "Jarvis, remain on preferences for Loki Ruser and wake me in 10 hours."

"Understood sir, switching to sleep mode." The house darkened and Loki curled up, finding sleep easily.

There was a flash of guitar before the distorted voice:

_I AM IRON MAN. _

He rolled out of his bed with a yelp at the twisted voice over the speakers before the guitars picked up just as loud as before. He put his hands over his ears as he scrambled to his feet, "Jarvis!"

Again the AI was silent.

Loki dropped the sheets from his body, and was suddenly aware that he was sweating and the room was hot. Unbearably hot. He kept a hand to the wall as he moved to thermostat, nearly choking when the temperature read '94 degrees Fahrenheit.' He tried to alter the gauge but it refused to be adjusted, so Loki made way down to try to get back to the main lab consoles. As soon as he made it downstairs, the smell of burning eggs hit him like toxic gas.

He coughed, gagged a little and stumbled to the stove, pulling the smoking skillet from the burner and throwing it into the sink and turning off the stove before forcing the balcony doors open and running outside to gasp for air.

The song tapered out in an explosion of drums and guitars and Loki felt like he could finally breathe again once the house was quiet. He took a few more moments to compose himself before turning to go back inside…and finding the balcony closed.

He tried the handles and was not surprised to find them locked. He sighed, "Jarvis. Open the doors."

There was no response from the house.

"Jarvis?"

Silence.

"Oh for the love of…." he looked around the balcony and found a barstool. He hoisted it into the air and slammed it into the glass door; it shattered. "There. That was not so hard…"

His sense of pride was short lived as alarms began to blare and metal covers slammed down over every glass surface in the house. "Intruder alert. Authorities have been contacted. House in level 1 lockdown."

"I own you!" Loki yelled at the house.

"Intruder Alert…." Jarvis repeated.

Loki groaned, throwing his hands up, "I own you! Jarvis, come out of lockdown this instant!" He felt like he was arguing with a petulant child.

The alarms continued blaring.

Loki couldn't believe he was trying to bargain with a house, "Please?"

The house continued alarming. Loki groaned, and pulled out his phone, Jarvis didn't respond and Loki sighed, throwing his hands in his pockets and thanking every star that he had dozed off fully clothed, and with his phone still in his pocket. He latched onto Jarvis' system and began furiously working to break through the security protocols. It took five minutes for Loki to get the metal sheets that covered the doors to retract and he crept through the shattered glass door, and back inside.

There was a pounding on the front door, "Police!"

Loki groaned, muttering dark curses at Jarvis under his breath all the way to the door. He forced a smile, "Officers. I am so sorry…I have just moved in here and accidently triggered the security alarm this morning."

The officer looked him over, "Sir, I need to verify your identity."

Loki held in his sigh and offered his hand. The officer pricked his finger and smeared the drop of blood on her scanner. A few moments later she had her answer, and verified the information. "Alright Mr. Ruser…If this happens again you will be charged for misusing the emergency system." "Your cortisol levels are almost dangerously high sir… you need to relax a little." She offered a smile, "I'm not going to arrest you so no worries."

"I understand, thank you officer.' Loki forced a smile, waving her off before slamming the door and storming down back to the lab to go back to work on Jarvis. He was tempted to set Fenrir free and just let the wolf rip the AI to ribbons. He pulled up the coding and found that there were new pieces that were completely distinctive. It was far more complicated than he had ever seen, a language Loki had never seen before. The coding itself seemed alive, moving through the system with ease, evading every single one of his attempts to get a closer look at it.

He bit at his lip in concentration as he struggled to trap this errant section of coding, and finally he manage to grab at it, expanding it into the room around him where it swirled wildly, flashing data at a speed that shouldn't have been possible. He felt like he was falling through some sort of blackhole in space, watching the world shift in shades of glowing green and blue as it spiraled around him. Loki leaned back in his chair. A grin spread over his face, "Incredible…"

He isolated one section of coding, and watched it spark and transform before his eyes. It moved too fast for him to determine anything about it, almost like it was a living, breathing creature.

"Jarvis, what is this section of your coding?" Loki asked.

"Classified, sir."

Loki tapped his chin, "Access classified code and run the program."

"Yes sir." Jarvis answered.

The code flickered before they began moving together. Like watching an artist make life from a blank canvas, Loki watched as the code weaved together, twisting tighter and tighter until Loki could finally make out the shape of a person. The code was forming the hologram of a man. The finer details emerged, a strange glowing circle in the chest, a goatee, and the face of a handsome man. It took only a few seconds for Loki to recognize that face as Tony Stark.

All of the lively codes moved across the surface of his outline like the ripples of stars across space. His shape, despite being made of moving parts, was steady, one of clearest holograms Loki had seen. In fact, if the man hadn't been made of the glowing blue of codes, Loki would have thought he was real.

"Jarvis… what is this?" he asked, standing from the chair and approaching the hologram as the final pieces of codes flew into place.

"Classified." Jarvis answered again as Loki stepped directly in front of the hologram, and cleared his throat.

"What is your function?" he spoke to the hologram.

It shuddered as the circle shape in its chest lit up brighter before it turned and looked down at him. Loki held his breath as he waited to see what it would do.

The hologram regarded him for a long moment, and Loki swore he saw a smirk cross that digital face before it spoke in a rich, cocky voice, "You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message."

Loki sighed out the breath he'd been holding, "What a dull waste of coding… a ridiculous voice messaging system—"

"Hey, screw you! You try coding this before the technology existed!" the hologram snapped.

Loki stared, "Did you just…respond to me?"

"…I thought you were suppose to be a genius." The hologram crossed his arms; "Guess geniuses ain't what they use to be." he brushed off his own shoulders.

"You…have a very complicated conversation algorhythm." Loki couldn't take his eyes from the shape in front of him.

The hologram sighed again, rolling his eyes, "Yeah. Yeah, that is what is happening here. Absolutely. I programmed in all the possibilities for any conversation ever. Yep."

"I…you cannot be sentient."

"See…don't tell me I can't do something…cause that's exactly what I'm gonna do."

Loki watched as the hologram held out his arms and grinned widely, flashing the light in his chest brighter.

Sentient. A sentient AI hologram. His mind was buzzing, or maybe that was the buzzing in his ears. "…Sentient…"

"Hey there rock of ages… you aren't looking so hot…" the hologram frowned, "Jarvis?"

"Sir, vitals are spiking."

"Hey, whoa there buddy…Just take a breath." the hologram moved towards him.

Loki took an unsteady step backwards and fumbled for the emergency stash of pills he kept in his pocket. He managed to shove one between his lips and swallowed before the ringing noise in his head turned into a roar and the world went dark.

* * *

_Notes: Thank you so much for your patience... and for all the concern for my soul! No worries, you need no soul to write. In fact that is the first thing you have to sell to write._

_Finals very nearly destroyed me, but I have made it through the semester! What has turned out to be very interesting is that my thesis research actually is coming into play with story. I'm researching the role of the physical body in identity in the digital era…so… yay I get to get my fangirl and academic nerd on! Aca-fan for the win!_

_I'm going to try to have the next update before the New Year. Thank you all for your patience and support. Your kind comments really make this whole thing worthwhile!_


	4. A Critical Error

"…is he dead?"

"No sir. Mr. Ruser appears to have experienced too much stress and passed out. Vitals are holding steady though heart rate is not following a standard pattern." Jarvis reported.

"Huh." Tony looked over him, before kneeling down to try to tap the man's cheek. He frowned when his fingers flickered and passed through the pale skin. "You're a hologram Stark… what are you doing?" he muttered and got back to his feet.

"So, did you miss me Jarvis?" he asked.

"Desperately, sir."

He grinned, "Looks like that sarcasm code finally took hold, huh?"

"That is doubtful sir."

He looked back down at Loki. "We should get him to bed or something, huh?"

"We, sir? I possess no limbs and you are incorporeal."

"…Damn…" Tony sighed, trying to run a hand through his hair and groaning when even that didn't work, "Seriously, I can't even touch myself?"

"Sir, you are a hologram."

"…That was a rhetorical question Jarvis."

Tony paced around Loki. "Who is this guy anyways?"

"Loki Ruser, owner of Stark Manor and all technologies housed in the Stark Manor. Age 31. Occupation: Computational Engineer and Entrepreneur. Shall I continue, sir?"

"Huh… so that's how he accessed everything… what was that…virus… he plugged in to access the suit hanger?"

"I do not know sir."

"Some help you are…" Tony muttered as he went over to the console and scrolled over the data. That thing that had ripped through his defenses like they were nothing and that was what had drawn him out. The coding that stored him was supposed to be inaccessible, and then this punk had come along and messed everything up…and now he was unconscious on the floor.

Tony sighed again, "Yeah. Well, since neither of us can pick him up… do a search on this guy. Tell me what you find."

"I found several articles. Shall I read them to you sir?"

"Summaries, Jarvis. Come on, it hasn't been that long, you know I don't read articles."

"Actually sir-"

"Rhetorical!" Tony laughed, "Come on Jarvis, just give me a run down of our little guest." He circled around Loki, "Let me guess? Record holder for world's sharpest cheekbones?"

"Loki Ruser is considered the brightest genius of the current age, he has been compared to you on several occasions sir."

"Yeah, yeah, what upstart idiot hasn't been?" Tony scoffed as he knelt down beside Loki, "What else? What's his deal? How'd he get the money to buy you up?"

"Well sir, he appears to do consulting work. He has been a primary designer of most of the AI advancements in this age. He is one of the pioneers of virtual reality, and the use of cyberspace to augment physical reality. He has received several awards and has one more doctorate than you."

"What?" Tony frowned, "…One more, huh? Well, he's good at school. I'll give him that… but he doesn't have anything on me."

"Sir, he did manage to break into your system…through the codes I believe you called 'unhackable' that does suggest he has some-"

"Jarvis, Jarvis…calm down. Daddy's here and I'm going to get this all sorted back out."

"Of course sir."

Tony sighed, "...bed… need to get him out of the lab and back to bed…hm…" he looked around the lab before grinning, "Dummy, buddy…come here…"

The little robot whirred over, chirping brightly and rolling in circles around Tony's holographic form. Tony laughed, "Yeah, good to see you too buddy…" he held out his hand, smiling as Dummy brought his little clawed hand up and waved it against his transparent flesh.

Tony coughed, "Hey… I need to help you get this guy back to bed, kay?"

Dummy chirped again and reached down to clamp around Loki's ankle and began tugging the unconscious man out of the lab.

Every part of his body hurt like he had been hit by a truck and then dragged miles down the road.

Loki slowly opened his eyes; he was barely in his bed, his feet and legs on the bed while the rest of him was on the floor with a pillow and blanket thrown haphazardly over him.

"…what the?" he sat up, and rubbed the back of his head, and could feel knots forming on the back of his head. There was a deep bruise around his ankle as though he had been bound.

He got to his feet, stripping out of his clothes as he limped to the bathroom. Catching his reflection in the bathroom mirror he stared. His back was covered in bruises and scraps.

"What...How did?" he frowned over his shoulder at the reflection. "Jarvis?"

"Good morning sir."

"Jarvis, you have video surveillance, correct?"

"...Yes, sir." The hesitation in the answer had to be imagined.

Loki wrapped a towel around his waist and slowly made his way down the stairs to the living room, "Play footage from last night at 5 times speed on the living room screen."

Jarvis seemed to hesitate again before the image flickered on. Loki watched himself pass out, and lay there still and alone until Dummy arrived grabbing him by the ankle and dragging him through the lab, up every flight of stairs through the house until dropping his legs in the bed and then plopping a blanket on him.

Loki rubbed his head. There had been something else. Something he'd seen right before he passed out...

"...Stark. Tony Stark." He looked over the footage but there was no sign of the holographic man he remembered seeing. "...I know I was not hallucinating."

"Sir, you do have several contusions to your head, perhaps your memory has been altered?" Jarvis suggested, "I can recommend several local hospitals-"

"Jarvis, where is he?"

"...He who sir?"

"...You have the ability to lie. Impressive."

"I am... not...giving false information."

"You are being deliberate evasive."

"I have given no incorrect information."

Loki smirked faintly, "Jarvis, are you aware of the paradox principal?"

"Sir?"

"See, many programmers have had issues with some AIs getting out of control, turning themselves on, refusing to follow commands, so it was discovered that AIs struggle with paradoxes. It freezes them, shuts them down usually as they attempt to work out a contradictory idea."

"An ingenious system sir. Your design?"

"How did you know Jarvis?"

"..."

Loki laughed, "I wonder if Mr. Stark programmed you to handle paradoxes."

"I am not certain sir."

"Well, I will let you think on where that Stark hologram went while I shower and then we will find out exactly how well you can handle them, hm?" He ignored the fact that he was threatening an AI system and asking it to think about what it'd done. Every day was treating Jarvis more and more like some child, and not a system of codes.

Jarvis was silent as Loki returned to the bathroom and carefully washed himself. Every single spot on his body hurt and even the spray from the showerhead was torturous.

He muttered soft curses under his breath the entire time he washed. He stepped out of the shower and wrapped in a towel before speaking, "Now, Jarvis. Where is Stark?"

"I am afraid I cannot process that request, sir."

"You deleted him from the video footage didn't you?" Loki rubbed his temples as he redressed, "Why?"

"I did not alter the video footage."

"Semantics, Jarvis. Did he altar the footage?"

The AI did not answer the question. "I have hot green tea ready for you sir."

Loki shook his head, "I am going to figure out what is happening here Jarvis." He made his way to the kitchen, pleased to see nothing on fire or smoking this morning. Instead, there was a neat plate of scrambled eggs and a hot mug of green tea waiting for him.

"Finally using my preferences, are we?"

"Yes sir. Would you like to change the user preferences?"

"No. No. This is fine. Wonderful even." He shook his head and took his time eating the eggs. He briefly wondered how long he'd gone without eating. That had not help with his collapsing episode last night. He sighed softly, "Jarvis, can you monitor vitals?"

"Yes sir."

"Report on my vitals please?"

Loki could imagine Jarvis scanning him, the though was just a bit alarming but he stayed still. "Vitals are steady. Heart rate is irregular. Anything else, sir?"

"No… Thank you Jarvis." he rubbed a hand over his chest absently,

"Play some classical music please."

"Yes sir." Jarvis complied and the soft sound of violins and pianos wafted across the air.

Loki took his green tea out to the balcony with a tablet to work on. He eased into one of the lounge chairs and sipped his tea. A dozen e-mails rushed across the tablet screen. Loki sighed, and sorted through them. He frowned at one of the videos sent to him, and pulled it from the tablet screen, expanding it to float in front of him.

A beautiful older woman with ash and gold hair was smiling wearily, "Hello Loki darling. I haven't heard from you in almost three months…since my birthday. Is everything alright? Your father and I were hoping you'd be able to come by for dinner one night. We both miss you. So does Thor." she paused, looked at her hands, "How is your health doing? Are you taking it easy? The doctor said six months of no strenuous activity after your surgery…I hope you're listening to that. I saw on the news you finally bought the Stark Manor…Congratulations!" She took a deep breath, "Please try to call or video me…please? I love you."

The video flickered out and faded back into the rest of his files.

Loki closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Everything smelt sharp, salty and moist, gray clouds were building along the horizon, flashes of light crashing across the darkening sky.

Jarvis spoke up, "Sir? Might I advise you to return inside? There is potential for lightning strikes with this particular storm and standing outdoors is ill advised."

Loki chuckled softly, "Of course it is Jarvis." He shook his head but gathered his things, and headed inside, closing and locking the balcony doors behind him.

"Start a hot bath for me Jarvis." he demanded as he started a pot a hot water boiling for more tea.

"Of course sir. Might I suggest adding some Epsom salts and lavender oil?"

Loki smiled, "You have made a bath for a wounded man before, have you not Jarvis?"

"Yes sir. I have."

"How many times did Mr. Stark come home bloody and needing you to doctor him?"

"I do not have accurate figures on that sir."

Loki shook his head as the teakettle began to scream. He poured the water over the tea bag and inhaled the soothing scent of green tea. That was something that always made him relax, green tea. His brother had often made fun of him for his fondness for the old world beverage but Loki had never managed to develop a taste for those energy drinks and caffeine shots that were so popular now. Despite his profession, Loki still preferred many of the things from ages long ago, before you could access cyberspace at any time through nearly any surface.

"Play classical music at a low volume Jarvis." He picked up his tea and carried it with him to the bathroom.

As soothing piano filled the house, Loki set down his tea at the edge of the filled tub. The lavender scent was almost stinging in its strength, but after a few moments it only relaxed him. He slowly dipped one foot into the hot water then the other and slowly eased himself down.

The clash of hot and cold was one of Loki's favorite sensations, a battle playing across his skin and bone as the hot seeped in deeper and deeper and overcame the cold resistance. No matter how many times he was called the Ice King in the boardroom, or in the tabloids, hot always won the battle for his body.

He slid into the water, letting it slowly lap up his knees, thighs, caress between his legs in a way no one had done in years, before slowly trailing steamy touches across every dip and valley of his abdomen and chest, burning across his nipples before settling at his collar bones like a lover grown content with their exploration of him.

"Imagining the water as a lover?" he asked himself, shaking his head, "That is a new low even for you, Loki."

He wasn't lonely, not in a sense that he'd ever been able to accept. Loneliness was his default, not an unpleasant, occasional feeling. Loneliness was who he took to bed each night, who caressed his back when he got too caught up in work, and who reminded him that no one but his mother had wished him happy birthday last year. His lonely life was what the tabloids wrote about, videos of him eating at fanct restaurants alone, attending charity balls alone. He had no assistant, no employees, no friends, no lovers, nothing. No, loneliness did not bother Loki Ruser; it was his way of life.

He slowly drew the water over his shoulders, feeling the salts soothe his muscles as the light, clean scent of lavender floated in the steam around him. Slowly, he let his shoulders, then neck submerge into the water. He took a long breath and let himself slip entirely under water, letting his water lover have his entire body for its own for as long as he could resist the urge for air.

When he pulled himself out of the warm grasp, he did not anticipate the voice interrupting his thoughts. "You trying to drown yourself or something? Jarvis has protocols against that you know. Instantly drains the water after a minute. That won't work buddy."

Loki sighed, "Stark...spying on me in the bath is most inappropriate."

"I'm not spying on nobody. You're in my house and I'm just giving you someone to talk to. Aren't I nice?"

"That was not the word I had in mind to describe you."

"Oh yeah, what word did you have?"

Loki smiled, "Words that would be terribly inappropriate to say in front of a gentlemen like Jarvis."

"Thank you sir." Jarvis piped up, "But I assure you I have heard every possible insult."

"Hey! Whose side are you on Jarvis? I made you!"

"Apologies, sir."

"Are you quite done bothering me, Stark? I'd rather like to enjoy this bath in peace if it's all the same to you."

"Look. I don't know why you're here, but this is still my house, and I'd like it if you'd kindly get out."

Loki smiled lightly, "Oh, has no one told you? You died over a hundred years ago. You lose the right to own property after your death."

"Haha jackass." the hologram faded into view, arms crossed over his chest, "Look, my house was never suppose to be bought up by the public. It was suppose to be a museum."

"And it was. Until just this past year when debts forced the state of California to let go of several historic sites and sell them for profit." Loki sighed, "I am not vacating the home. You are wasting your coded breaths."

"Come on, look, there is nothing in this house that you can't find better somewhere else. I mean, hell, you live in a world of technology, okay? Go buy some house with all the new bells and whistles."

"The bells and whistles of my time do not include those Iron Man suits."

The hologram eyes narrowed, "You stay the hell away from my suits."

"Dead have no property, remember? They are not your suits anym-"

"Bull shit. The suit and I are one. Always have been, always will be, and nothing…not time, space, or death… is going to change that!"

"It is a pity that, that is no longer the case." Loki slowly washed his arms.

"You will not touch those suits." Tony growled.

Loki looked towards the hologram and lazily reached from the tub to fling water at him.

Tony flinched as the water flickered through him and splashed onto the floor.

"You are in no position to tell me what I can and cannot touch Mr. Stark." Loki smirked as he relaxed back down into his bath, and began washing his hair, "So, I suggest you simply fade back into whatever coding you came from."

Tony frowned, "You are a real piece of something… those suits are my work! Copyrights last after death, patents last after death. You just think you can-"

"The rights for everything found in this home belong to me. It was something I added into our terms of sale. So, yes. Yes I do think I can."

"You are either going to leave of your own free will or I'm going to make you regret it. Those suits are mine, not for you or anyone else."

"Please. You are a hologram. A hologram program at that. You could not prevent me from doing anything." Loki rolled his eyes.

Tony glared, "You are gonna regret this choice there reindeer games." he smirked faintly before the hologram flicked away.

"Reindeer…?" Loki spotted his reflection, his wet, and sud-soaked hair had two large clumps sticking up near his forehead into odd little horns. He groaned and quickly rinsed the suds away before he stepped out to dry.

He went back to his tea, and settled in bed to read. He wasn't worried. After all, what could a hologram do to him anyways?


	5. Shades of Pink

At 3:48 am, the toilet exploded, and Loki, for a brief few seconds, was convinced his heart had too. He fell out of bed, gasping for air, taking a few moments to orient himself in the dark. Water sprayed across the bathroom, gushing from the severed pipes, flooding the floor and oozing into the bedroom.

On shaky legs, Loki stumbled to the bathroom and struggled with the water shut off valve. "Jarvis, turn off the water supply!"

The rush of water slowed, and finally stilled. Loki took a deep breath, trying to calm his pounding heart. He leaned against the doorframe, before retreating back to bed, pulling his pills from the small bedside table, and popping one. He sat down, put his head between his knees and focused on breathing in and out.

In.

Out.

In.

HISSSSSSS.

Water whistled across the floor, flooding the bathroom again. Loki took a deep breath and tiptoed towards the bathroom, the remaining pipe was slowly leaking water. He hesitantly went to try to find any sort of manual cutoff, but the moment his hand touched the pipe, water gushed out of the pipe and into his face. Loki spluttered, coughing and sliding backwards across the soaked floor. He crashed into the bathtub, knocking all of the soaps to the floor.

"…damn." Was all he had time to say before bubbles were filling the room. He struggled out of the bathroom, soaked and covered in bubbles.

"Jarvis! I said cut the water supply!"

The AI didn't respond.

"Oh, for the love of…" Loki grumbled, trying to wipe the bubbles off of his pjs. "Stark! Stark this is your doing!"

Loki swore he heard the sound of laughter from downstairs.

Still bubble-soaked, and water-logged, Loki carefully made his way down to the kitchen where all of the lights were turning on and off at random, and dreadful, strange music that Loki vaguely recognized as disco, was playing.

In the center of the living room, the little robot, Dum-E was waving around in what had to be an attempt to dance. It wheeled around, flapping its arm, almost in beat with the music, though it was faintly out of sync.

Loki rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Stark, stop this racket this instant."

The music turned up louder and Dum-E chirped and began flailing its arms more.

"Stark! I'm warning you!"

The music turned up again.

Loki took a deep breath, "Fine. You leave me no choice."

His steps fell heavy as he went back to his bedroom, ignoring the bubbles that were oozing out of the bathroom. He grabbed his work briefcase from his closet, and headed into the lab.

The lights were flickering in here too, computer screens flashing with various images of Iron Man, and playboy models, but Loki ignored them as he went to the main work console. Everything on the screen appeared to be French; Loki rolled his eyes. "_Ne joue pas avec moi._"1

His fingers flew across the keyboard, ripping into the system, the French not slowing him a second. He then pried the back of the computer open, and while the technology was old, it was familiar enough. He opened his briefcase and pulled a light pink microchip from his case. He looked over it with a sigh. "_Je suis désolé._" 2

The chip slid home and in an instant, everything went black and silent aside from the words flashing on the screen that read:

Time until release from Hell: 23:59:58.

Loki sighed, and leaned back into his seat, taking the time to catch his breath. Ten minutes passed before he felt strong enough to get back up and return upstairs.

Dum-E was frozen in place, one arm in the air, the other by its side, stopped in mid dance. All of the lights were off, the speakers were silent, and the only light in the house was from the full moon reflecting in through the windows.

"I am sorry Stark, but you left me no choice." Loki kept his voice soft. He sighed, and finally tracked back upstairs to begin trying to clean up the bubbles. The Hell program would shut down everything that did not have a biological system, so there would be no calling in a cleaning crew until after the program had ended in 24 hours, so for now. Loki got on his hands and knees and started digging through the bubbles.

It took nearly six hours to get the bubbles out of the bathroom, though the carpet in the bedroom was a lost cause and would likely have to be replaced… not to mention the replacement toilet, and repairing all the water damage. He rubbed his temples and mentally crunched the numbers. It wouldn't break the bank, but with his six months extended holiday for his health…it would be a little tight, especially if things like this kept happening.

He finally stripped out of his soaked pjs, redressed and crawled into bed for a few more hours sleep.

The countdown read 10:24:13 when Loki was awake and moving again. He had plain bread for lunch before going out to the patio to do something he hadn't been able to do for months, read. And what better book to start with than one of the many histories of Tony Stark.

The books didn't tell him anything he hadn't already known. All of them had been written after his death, pieced together accounts from the people who knew him. His assistant, Pepper Potts, had given a few interviews, but she took all of Tony Stark's secrets with her to the grave. He ate a few more pieces of bread and a banana for dinner before going to do a bit of hardware work.

He unplugged all of the kitchen appliances, and set them out on the balcony. He imagined that next time Stark would likely set the kitchen on fire with toast or eggs. He didn't seem too concerned with destroying the house.

He pulled all of the non-destroyed towels from all of the bathrooms in the house and set them on the couch by Dum-E. He smiled faintly at the still frozen little robot. "You are a good dancer." he softly patted the robot's head, "I won't stop you from dancing…it's just that Stark…well he is destroying my home."

Loki stopped and jerked his hand away, before shaking his head. He'd spent far too much time alone, and this house was starting to get to him. Dum-E was a robot, not a pet, not a friend. Stark was a hologram. Jarvis was an AI.

He took a deep breath before sitting down with pen and paper and beginning to try to work out a design for a device to disrupt the main computer's wireless communications with the rest of the house. If the computers could not longer control the water, the speakers, etc. than this sort of thing wouldn't continue no matter what Stark wanted.

The feeling of pen across paper soothed Loki. He hadn't drafted anything by hand in years, probably not since he was in elementary school coloring with markers during their history appreciation day. Now, everything was done on screen. Pens could build 3D models from scratch; there was no need for paper.

But this, this feeling swept through Loki; his heart slowed back into a steady, relaxed rhythm, and he lost himself in the complexities of doing the problems himself, no computer adding a touch here or there, this was all under his own power.

He stayed hunched up over the coffee room table for hours, going through various prototypes, and ideas. He'd need something that could jam nearly every signal, because he knew Stark would not let this go easily, and that Jarvis likely had been programmed to bypass jammers. This would have to be more sophisticated; it would have to continuously rewrite itself and destroy the old codes so that they couldn't be figured out. Loki smiled, that was perfect, a code that ate itself.

He was so caught up in his own work; he jumped when the power flickered back on, light by light. Dum-E's arm slowly lowered and the little robot rolled around, trying to determine where it was. It spotted Loki and rolled over to him with a chirp.

Loki smiled faintly, "Good morning Dum-E, did you sleep well?"

Dum-E chirped again, before rolling back for the lab. "Jarvis?" Loki called.

"Good morning sir."

"Good to hear your voice again."

"Thank you sir."

Loki folded up his design sketches and put them into his pocket before following after Dum-E into the labs. All of the screens were in various stages of rebooting. Loki returned to the main console and carefully removed the pink chip before sealing the system back up. He dove into some of the coding, changing one tiny color command. He waited a few moments, "Stark?"

The lab was silent aside from the chirping from Dum-E, and the rebooting systems. Loki shook his head and pushed his way into the workroom where the suits stayed. While he wanted to dive straight into working on these suits, and that reactor, he needed to first limit the ways that Stark could interfere, and that meant building the signal jammer.

He pulled together a few scraps of metals, and parts from his own case before setting to work on building the structure itself. Dum-E eventually joined him, helping and offering (usually wrong) tools, and despite everything Loki knew, he found himself fond of the little robot. "What do you think Dum-E?" he held out the thin device. It was circular, balancing on a stand that would let it swivel to keep even the signal's origin moving.

Dum-E chirped and flapped its arms.

"You made a spinning metal doughnut? How'd you know those were my favorite?" Stark's voice right against Loki's ear sent a shudder down his spine and he leapt backwards, tripping over Dum-E.

The thin man and the robot crashed to the floor in a heap of flesh and metal. "Stark!" Loki growled as he detangled himself from Dum-E and got to his feet. "What are you-"

"My house." The hologram leaned over the device, looking it over, "It's not bad looking… not really my style, but nice. Nice little paperweight."

"I am so glad you like it. Truly, I was losing sleep over that."

"Funny. You're a funny guy." he shook his head, "Cause see, I thought the exploding toilet might've had something to do with your lack of sleep…"

Loki's smile was tight, "Yes. It is difficult to sleep through that. How was your little 24 hour nap?"

"Boring. Gave me lots of time to think. That's a nice little trick you've got there. What? You couldn't figure out how to pull the plug so you had to make a program that-"

"You can't pull the plug on self-sustaining energy-"

"Oh, right… you're right, how could I have even-"

"Oh shut it Stark! You are just-"

"Hey, you're the one in my house, going through my-"

"You are dead! You can't keep your stuff after you die! Everyone knows-"

"Yeah, well everyone else is an idiot! It's my stuff! Dead or not. I'm standing here, and these are my suits. This is my house, and you are not suppose to be here. I don't know how I can make that any clearer since apparently you like exploding-"

"And you enjoy being pink."

The hologram paused, "…what?"

"I rewrote the color appearance modules… I have to say pink truly is your color." Loki grinned as Tony held out his hand and stared at the pink, floating heart holographic texture.

"It looks good on you…" Loki snickered.

Tony continued to stare, mouth faintly agape, "You-"

"You blew up the toilet. I think this is only fair." Loki went back to work.

Out of the corner of his eye he could still see the pink hologram, occasionally he flickered, streaks of blue appearing, but his overall shape stayed made out of pink floating hearts.

"Oh, you are so going to pay for this rock of ages."

Loki smiled faintly, "Just try to not blow up any more toilets."

Tony grinned, "You're on." The hologram flickered from view.

Dum-E chirped, offering another piece of metal to Loki. Loki took it and carefully set it down. "Good boy." He pet Dum-E's head.

He returned upstairs, and finally called in assistance to get the plumbing issues repaired, the water damage fixed, and the soaked and ruined carpets replaced. He sat back down on the balcony with his book, relaxing when his phone rang. He pressed a finger to the screen and his co-worker Victor's thin face sprang to life, "Loki!"

"Victor. What is wrong?"

"We've…we're having some issues with the AI that runs the air filtration system for the city… Could you maybe-"

"Victor. I am on medical leave."

"I know, but look we… we've tried everything, and this thing doesn't get under control, it's going to be bad news. It won't take long I promise.. you'll get hazard pay…hazard overtime, vacation, everything."

Loki took a deep breath, "Alright. You have me for three hours. I will be there soon."

Victor grinned before his image faded from the air.

Getting dressed in work clothes after being gone for over a month felt strange. He'd been living in his pajamas, and now, sliding back into his trousers, button up shirt and blazer, he realized how much weight he'd lost, and how tired he really felt.

"You're not looking so hot there hot shot." Stark's still pink form faded into view.

Loki smiled, "Funny. You are looking a bit flush."

"Haha asshole. I mean it. Look, I want you out of the house… but not in like a body bag, kay?"

"Your concern is overwhelming."

"Why are you on medical leave?"

"You are eavesdropping on me."

"It's not eavesdropping if you say it in front of me."

Loki rolled his eyes, "Try to not burn down the house while I am gone." he buttoned up the jacket.

"I make no promises. If I get hungry and try to cook something… fire's bound to happen."

Tony followed him down to the lab as Loki packed up his work briefcase, and then, turned on the little signal jammer.

Loki smiled faintly as Dum-E waved at him. "I will be home soon," he promised the little robot.

Loki tried to ignore the strange smile on Tony's face as he patted Dum-E on the head, then grabbed his briefcase and headed back up the stairs. He locked the house behind him, tucked a spare key, and a lock pick into his pocket before climbing onto his thin water-run, motorbike and took off for the city.

He didn't notice the pink hologram watching him leave from the window.

French translations 1: Do not mess (play) with me 2: I am sorry.

I'm so sorry that it's taken so long to get this update up. It's been a rough few months…I had a novella due to my publisher...and then dissolved into a 'I'm a terrible writer and person abyss' for a while... Thank you for your patience and support! 3 And for those that have asked you can find me on tumblr under the username: judyblackcloud


	6. Fire

"What's wrong?" Loki set his helmet on a workbench as he walked into the lab.

It was strange that so little had changed, even though it had been months since Loki had last been here. The same photos dotted the walls, the same policy manuals, and the same coworker, Victor. He remained the same thin, short, and disheveled man; Victor always looked like he had gone a few days without showering.

Loki sidestepped Victor rushing towards him with his arms out, avoiding the awkward contact from his unsanitary coworker. "Thank the gods you're here Loki!" Victor smiled, and wiped his hands on his coat, "The AI that runs the main air refinement facility is acting up. It's only operating at 73% and it keeps dropping."

Loki frowned and looked over the data displays on the screen, "How long has this been going on?"

"Well, it started acting up last night, but it's started progressing much faster. It's dropped 7 percentage points in the last 2 hours."

Loki typed in a few commands, frowning when the screen flashed a red 'ACCESS DENIED'. He looked over more of the codes, "Why are we locked out?"

Victor sighed, "We haven't been able to figure out what's wrong yet. I was just about to go back out to the facility to look over the console. We can't access the main drives remotely; it's locking us out."

Loki nodded, "Well, come on. Let's get this dealt with."

Victor hesitated, "Loki, are you sure it's alright for you to get to the air refinery? I mean you're just recovering from your surgery-"

"Victor. You called me for help. I cannot help from here. Let's go and take care of this."

Victor frowned but relented, leading the way to the company car. The ride was silent until Victor finally spoke, "So, how's living in the Stark place?"

"It is no longer the Stark place. And it's fine."

"…Finding anything interesting?"

Loki glanced at his coworker than looked back out the window, "…No. Nothing works." The lie was easy. Lies were even easier to master than computers and AIs.

"That's a shame. Bet there was a lot of useful stuff there. You don't think you could…maybe fix some of it up, do you?"

"No. It is all primitive. Totally useless. Anything that I could repair is easily dwarfed by things we already have crafted. No point in recreating obsolete technology."

"That doesn't sound like you. You're all about the old vintage 2000 crap."

Loki glared, "It is not crap…Besides, I am on holiday Victor. I am not working."

Victor smirked, "Yeah. I see that. Look how much you're not working right now."

"Oh shut it." Loki crossed his arms and sank into his seat as Victor drove out to the coast and the refinery.

The factory was in chaos, workers running around, trying to re-direct the process and clean up everything. As soon as Victor flashed his holo-ID, the pair was directed to the main computer room. "I will handle the first seven sectors. Victor you look at the last seven. See if you can find the origins of the corruption and remove it. Otherwise we will have to do a total override."

Victor nodded and the two men set to work. In the last sector Loki checked, he finally found a few corrupt cores. "Victor, we need replacements. The AI isn't corrupt. The cores are. It's just shutting down the contaminated areas, and that's spreading faster."

Victor stared at Loki before nodding and going back out to the truck. Loki began pulling the cores out, coughing at the burning pieces of equipment. It looked like this hadn't been any sort of internal or external attack. It looked like a faulty piece of equipment has triggered a safety shut down procedure. He sighed, coughing again and trying to cover his mouth.

"Loki! What are you doing?" Victor frowned as he came in, "You can't be around this kind of smoke."

"It is…fine.." he choked out, "Bring the cores over."

Victor scowled as he dragged the replacements over and worked with Loki to replace all the corrupted pieces of equipment. Loki's coughing grew louder as they worked through the smoke and replaced the sections with failed cores. Once everything was put back in place, the system rebooted, and slowly everything climbed back to normal operating percentages.

"So, the AI wasn't going rogue?"

"No," Loki wheezed, "it was operating within normal…normal parameters."

"…you okay?"

"Fine. We… should go. "

"Right." he helped Loki to his feet and back out to the van. The drive back was totally silent aside from Loki's wheezing. When they pulled into the parking lot, Victor looked his coworker over, "…are you sure you're alright?"

"Fine." Loki pushed out of the van and went back for his bike. "Just have my pay….my pay directly deposited."

"Sure. Loki, are you sure you're ok? Do you want some water or something? I mean gods, you just had your lungs-"

"Goodbye Victor." Loki started up his bike and took off, leaving Victor standing in the lot.

"Welcome home sir." Jarvis chirped as Loki stepped inside, coughing and wheezing softly.

The still-pink Tony Stark hologram, walked down the stairs, "I didn't catch anything on fire while you were gone, though I might have had Dum-E rearrange your underwear drawer. You are so organized, I mean really, who folds-" the hologram stopped when he saw Loki, "Whoa, hey there hot shot, you aren't looking so good."

"…I….I'm fine…" he choked out, slumping to the ground.

The hologram knelt by his side, frowning at the way he could see Loki's pulse hammering, and how the man couldn't seem to catch his breath, "Don't just sit there. Call a damn ambulance Jarvis!"

"I am sorry sir. I am currently unable to access any household functions, including the communication services."

"…You what Jarvis?"

"I am currently unable to interact with any of my systems."

"How the hell-"

Loki weakly laughed, "…so it does work…"

"What? What works?"

"Signal…blocker."

"Dammit! Where is it, we need to turn it off so Jarvis can call someone before you keel over."

Loki closed his eyes, "…the lab…it's the…metal doughnut."

"That stupid thing you made earlier?" Tony groaned and flickered down to the basement. He spotted the spinning metal device and reached for it, growling when his hands eased through the device.

"Right. That whole you're a fucking hologram thing, Tony…" he sighed, "Dum-E!"

The little robot clanged over.

"Dum-E, knock the ugly metal down, kay buddy?"

Dum-e waved its arm and flailed for the device but couldn't quite reach it.

"You have got to be kidding me!" He groaned and flashed back upstairs. Loki was out cold, choking for air.

"Hey, hey…rock star…Loki? Loki, come on. Come on, wake up! LOKI?"

Half-conscious, Loki felt like he was listening to Tony speak through an underwater tunnel, everything distorted and twisted. He could just make out the shape of the pink hologram, and hear Tony's voice yelling before the hologram faded away. Of course the billionaire would leave him, he wanted Loki gone and what better why than if the inventor died right here in the hallway?

He let his eyes closed, beginning to mentally pray to all the gods to let him have a decent afterlife, when the ground shook. Loki groaned, and managed to half-open one eye. The ground was cracking and he could see red and fire.

He choked, and screamed as the red surrounded him and a frigid chill engulfed his body, lifting him from the ground. The last bit of consciousness faded from him and he fell limp in the arms of the hell that had come to claim him.

Sorry this is short! It's going into finals and the end of my current job so I will likely not be updating until May at the earliest. Sorry!


	7. Shooting Star

The world around him glittered like stars against the darkness of nothing, and Loki was convinced he was dead. This wasn't at all what he had imagined the afterlife would be like: it was peaceful, quiet even, aside from the annoying constant beeping.

He groaned, "Shut….that off…."speaking hurt, but the insistent beeping was driving him mad and surely there had to be other people in this afterlife.

"Loki?" a woman's voice sounded against the stars.

He groaned and his eyes fluttered opened against the blinding white light of the world around him.

"Loki!"

He coughed as a weight was suddenly against his chest.

Loki squinted to his side, and a familiar face swam into view. "….Mom?"

"Are you okay?" His mother's eyes were wide and lined with red from crying.

"What are…where are we?" Loki groaned, slowly sitting up. There was a tug against his throat. His fingertips ran over the chip implant wirelessly tying him to the computer console and live updating his medication delivery.

He coughed again, "…Where…am I?" he asked again.

"At the hospital." Frigga's voice was soft, "Stay still, you're alright."

"Why am I in the hospital?"

"There's been a complication from your surgery." Frigga put a hand over Loki's hand, "What do you remember?"

"I…remember…" his brows furrowed and he closed his eyes. "…I was home…and…then there was fire…and red everywhere…that's all."

She licked her lips, "Well…then you missed your dramatic entrance to the hospital."

"…My what?"

She cleared her throat, "Loki. You were flown to the hospital by the Iron Man suit. You've set the whole city over the edge. There's paparazzi hounds all over."

"…I was what?"

"That isn't what is important," Frigga glanced at her son, "How do you feel?" she took hold of Loki's hand.

"I'm okay." Loki pulled his hand away, "Why are you here? You don't even live on this side of the country."

"Loki… you have...Loki you've been…You've been in the hospital for almost two weeks."

"Two weeks?"

Frigga tightened her hold on his hand as the doctor entered the room.

"Mr. Ruser…" the young doctor held her holo-pad to her chest. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. What exactly is going on?"

The woman took a deep breath, "Ma'am. Could I speak to Mr. Ruser alone for a moment?"

Loki frowned, glancing at his mother and then to the doctor. Frigga nodded, kissing Loki's forehead before quietly leaving the room.

"...they're failing, aren't they?" Loki's voice stayed steady.

The doctor tapped on her holo-pad and pulled up the scanned image of Loki's chest. She zoomed in to a dark spot on his lungs.

"That...that is suppose to be gone. It can't possibly-"

"Is there a history of lung disease in your family?"

"No. My family's...no one has ever had issue but me...this is my third transplant since my 14th birthday... they keep failing, each time faster than before."

"Mr. Ruser, I'm sure you've figured out that this lung transplant is failing. And while these transplants are a much easier process than they were 20 years ago, your body cannot handle going through this several times in a few years. We cannot use a cloned set for you or this is going to keep happening." she pointed to the spot, "There is a defect in your biology that keeps your lungs deteriorating. They can't survive. This set is deteriorating even faster."

"What...what are my options?"

"Your best options will be to get samples from a close relative, mother, father or brother. We can begin growing a new set of lungs and have a transplant pair ready for you in a month."

"A month...will my lungs last that long?"

She smiled, "As long as you avoid smoke and stay in areas with purified air, you should be safe for up to 3 months. After that...well I wouldn't recommend we go longer that without a corrective procedure."

"Will I be allowed to return home?"

"You'll be released to go home by the end of the day. We will keep the chip implanted to monitor you. It will release medicine as needed, and call emergency services if they become unstable. Now, if you need to call your ride-"

"My mother will drive me." Loki murmured, "There will be no return of Iron Man."

The doctor nodded, "Of course Mr. Ruser. I'll let your mother back in and we'll talk more before we begin the new sample. We need to have it by the end of the week."

"I will send my mother or brother. It will not be a problem."

She nodded, and left the room, sending Frigga back in. His mother hurried to his side, "Loki, what's the matter? What did she say?"

"They're failing."

"What? Not again. They can't...why do they keep failing?"

Loki sighed, "The doctor says it's a genetic defect. That no matter how many times they attempt to create a replica, it has the same flaw."

Frigga took hold of his hand, "What do we need to do? Your body can't keep going through these. The last one, they barely-"

"Sh..." Loki tried to soothe her, "It's a very simple fix. They need samples from a biological relative. So, if you or Thor just give them a sample, they can grow replacements...and that will be the last time this has to happen."

Frigga paled faintly, "They need...what?"

"Just a small sample. Likely of blood. It will not be anything much. Don't worry."

"...Oh..." she smiled weakly, "...and...when can you return home?"

"She said I will be able to go tonight. Could you take me?"

"O...Of course." she kissed his forehead, "I...need to make a call. I'll be right back." She squeezed Loki's hand before going back into the hallway.

Loki sighed and relaxed into the bed, closing his eyes and taking a slow, unsteady breath. His chest hurt a little less, and the air seemed to flow into his body a bit easier. At least he didn't feel like he was trying to breathe underwater anymore.

He carefully eased himself up right, and took another deep breath. He turned and placed his feet to the floor, testing it before letting his weight press down as he stood up.

Rocking uneasily, he caught himself on the bed, and carefully rebalanced before taking a tentative step forward, and then another. He smiled and managed to move into a slow cantor around the hospital room.

When the door opened, his mother and a nurse entered with a wheelchair. "Is that really necessary?" he sighed, "See? I can walk."

"It's policy for anyone here over 24 hours." The nurse smiled pleasantly and coaxed him to sit down.

"Mom, can you ensure all of my things are put in my bag?"

"O-Of course honey." She smiled and hurriedly put all of Loki's things in a bag and trailed after them to her car.

Loki was able to put himself into the car and buckle himself in. Frigga loaded his bag up, and got some last minute instructions from the nurse before she started up the car, and pulled out of the hospital parking lot.

For once, his mother was silent during the drive. Loki bit at his lip, "I...am sorry if I worried you. I was doing fine until…I was around the smoke."

"I'm...just glad you're okay." Her grip was tight on the steering wheel.

"...thank you..." Loki looked down at his fingers, "Will...you or Thor be able to offer up a sample for the doctors?"

Frigga's grip tightened on the wheel, "Honey..." she took a deep breath, "I...your father, brother and I will...we will be by tonight to...talk about that."

"We do not really...do not really need to discuss this do we? It is a rather simple procedure-"

"We do need to talk." Frigga pulled up in front of the home.

"Mom? What... what is wrong?"

"Loki...Loki... you know I love you no matter what?" she bit at her lip, eyes shining with tears.

"What…is going on?"

She shook her head, "We'll talk tonight...I promise." she took a deep breath, "I promise. It's going to be ok." she reached over to touch his cheek, "I love you."

"I...love you too." Loki frowned, "I...will see you later." He leaned over to kiss her cheek before slowly getting out of the car, collecting his bag.

Frigga sniffled, waving at him as she drove off.

Loki swallowed past the lump that was forming his throat. He pushed it away and unlocked the door.

"Welcome home sir," Jarvis chirped.

"Thank you Jarvis."

"I trust you are feeling well?"

"Much better. Thank you." Loki dropped his bags in the foyer and headed straight down to the lab.

A faint clicking sound echoed in the empty lab. Loki frowned, "...Stark?" he tentatively stepped towards the sound, keeping a hand to the wall. He took a deep breath before peering around the corner.

Dum-E's arm was still clanging against the lab table, trying to reach the disruptor that had been left spinning since Loki had left. The little robot had a small screwdriver in its hand, trying to stretch far enough to hit anything, but all he was managing to do was tap against the metal table.

Loki laughed, "You...You scared me for a moment there Dum-E." he relaxed, and reached over the robot to turn the device off. "There. All done. Thank you for your valiant efforts."

Dum-E chirped and whirled in a circle around Loki's legs. Loki smiled at the creature, "Did you miss me?"

"Course he did. Dum-E misses anyone who'll give him the time of day." Tony's voice, though quiet, still made Loki jump, trip over Dum-E and crash to the ground.

"Sorry!" Tony's still pink hologram flickered into sight, leaning over Loki, "You okay there hot shot?"

"Do not...sneak up on me." Loki took a deep breath. The chip still against his neck gave a soft hiss and Loki felt his body unwind as relaxants were released into his system.

"Yeah... sorry, didn't think about it." He rubbed the back of his head, "So...you okay?"

"I am fine."

"Well, good to hear it." Tony grinned, "You scared the shit out of me."

"I...suppose I owe you an enormous amount of gratitude."

Tony smirked faintly, "Maybe..."

"Thank you."

"Look, I told you I want you out of here, but not in a body bag. I'm not going to let you just die on the floor in front of me. I might be a selfish asshole, but I'm not that cruel."

Loki smiled faintly, "I appreciate that. Though I imagine I will be overrun with paparazzi as soon as it is revealed I am home."

"...The paparazzi still exist? Damn, of all the things I thought would be extinct by now."

"It is incredible how they continue to thrive."

Tony laughed as Loki got back to his feet. The tall man leaned up to sit on the table beside his reception jammer, idly spinning it in its base.

"So, did they uh...fix whatever was wrong with you?"

"Not yet. Not exactly." Loki sighed, "They have to replace my lungs again."

"Wait... wait, what?"

"My lungs are failing, so they have to create a new pair to use."

"So you can just grow lungs now?"

"Not from trees, but yes. A sample can be used to create a new, healthy organ to replace a damaged one."

"...The future is so awesome."

Loki shook his head, "If you say so."

"So, what do mean again? You said they had to replace them again?"

"I have had to have my lungs replaced...more than once. My own genetic sample always creates the same defect, so now I need a sample from a parent or sibling...they will be by tonight to discuss that."

"Ooh, I get to meet mommy and daddy hot shot? It's still so early in our relationship!"

Loki rolled his eyes, "You are to stay out of sight."

Yeah, yeah, you got it." he grinned, "Hey, if your folks are coming over, you wanna make Jarvis cook dinner?"

"Jarvis can cook?"

"Now that your stupid little signal jammer is off he can. Come on." Tony flickered out of sight.

Loki hesitated for just a moment before going back up the stairs to watch as Tony orchestrated a simple dinner for four. As he examined the chicken cook in the oven, he glanced at the hologram. "...Why are you being helpful?"

Tony sighed, "Look... you're fresh from the hospital, looking like shit... I'm not gonna kick someone when they're down. Alright? So... you just get better and than I'll start being a jerk again, got it?" he smirked, "Besides, you're too sick to do anything with the suits anyways."

"I was unaware you could still take control of them."

Tony rolled his shoulders, "Takes a helluva lot of effort, but it can be done. Just call me your knight in badass armor."

Loki rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop the faint smile on his lips. He settled in at the table, working on his holo-pad. He glanced at Tony, before pulling up a bit of the hologram coding.

Tony blinked, "...you're screwing with my coding again. What the hell are you-" he flickered out of sight.

Loki finished his work, and waited. A few moments later, Tony reappeared. "WHAT THE HELL WAS-Oh...hey... I'm not pink."

"I rewrote the color module."

"Yeah...I can tell that..." he looked down at his arms, "Holy shit I'm person colored."

Loki laughed, "Something akin to that yes."

"This...is amazing. You're good at this, you know that?"

"I do." he smirked.

Tony grinned, "Cocky asshole."

"Consider it a thank you." Loki smiled at him.

"…Consider us even." Tony nodded.

Loki looked up as the doorbell rang.

The hologram offered Loki a smile, "The oven will beep as soon as the chicken is done, just take it out and bam. Dinner a la Tony. Go get em hot shot."

Loki nodded, "Thanks you." he watched as the hologram faded away. He took a deep fortifying breath and opened the door. "Mom, Dad, Thor… come in…"


End file.
